


Queen For A Day

by lucylow



Category: Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, The Borg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23548951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucylow/pseuds/lucylow
Summary: "It had been so long. So long since I'd heard the voices of the collective. I hoped I never would again." She shifted a bit to stretch her back, still sore from being violently connected to the Queencell. Seven pulled Raffi closer to her chest."As a queen, however briefly, I felt their confusion and their need for direction and approval. I felt like a mother. A caretaker. Then the Romulans opened the airlocks and I felt their lives ripped away from me while they screamed for me to help them."Or:Raffi comforts Seven when she comes to terms with what happened on the Borg cube. [Raffi/Seven established relationship, between seasons 1 and 2]
Relationships: Raffi Musiker/Seven of Nine
Comments: 5
Kudos: 74





	Queen For A Day

"No, not a princess." Mr. Hospitality paused. "Well, you do have an air about you. A presence that almost feels regal. Like a queen."

_ Like a Borg Queen, perhaps, _ Seven of Nine thought darkly. She downed a last shot of bourbon and stood wordlessly. Seven knew that the Hospitality Hologram didn't know any better, but the reminder still stung.

"Seven? Are you okay?" Raffi's concern followed her as the ex-Borg made a hasty path for her quarters. Automatic or not, the doors seemed to slam behind her.

"You idiot!" Elnor exclaimed. The group's attention whipped back to the confused hologram as a red, hand-shaped welt began to form on his simulated cheek. Elnor stood over the hologram, an accusing glare marking his already-flared brows. "Have you no compassion for all she's been through?"

"Ironic that you're the one who's angry," the hologram shot back, "Weren't you raised in the way of Absolute Candor? Always speaking your mind?"

Elnor looked thoughtful. Picard touched his hand to his forehead in his trademark expression of exasperation. Raffi just rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

"She  _ was  _ a queen. The  _ Borg  _ Queen. For a few minutes anyway." Elnor said quietly. "I don’t think she likes being reminded." Elnor slipped away, leaving the speechless crew to contemplate the implications.

=/\=

When Raffi slipped into her room an hour later, she found Seven lying on her back in the middle of a perfectly made bed. Her eyes were open, but they seemed a thousand light-years away. Raffi kicked off her shoes and curled up against her partner. She breathed deeply, enjoying the familiar scent of musk and booze from where she'd settled with her head on Seven's chest and fingers twirling the blond's hair. 

After a moment, she felt a hand press against the small of her back, pulling her closer. Raffi gave a squeeze that approximated a hug in their current configuration; she would be as close as Seven needed her. 

"Elnor told you," Seven finally spoke, somewhere between a question and a statement.

"He tried to. After I grilled him for twenty minutes," Raffi sighed. "You've got yourself a little protector, you know?"

The only response Raffi got was a slightly amused grunt from her makeshift pillow.

"It seems like he didn't really understand what happened though," Raffi continued, "Just something about you did what you had to do, you didn't want to, you didn't know if you  _ would _ want to, and you saved his life?"

"I think I traumatized the poor kid," Seven returned, the roughness of her voice the only evidence of her earlier tears.

"Hmph," seemed to be the initial response. Raffi continued, "Kid's been through a lot. I think his innocence is mostly cluelessness. It's adorable." She laughed slightly. "I think he's okay for now."

Seven just nodded.

"How about you?" said Raffi, carefully. The fact that Seven was here, in Raffi's quarters - though Seven had pretty much moved in a month or so ago - rather than in her own quarters or elsewhere on the ship implied she wanted to talk about it, or at least have company.

Seven was silent for another moment, and Raffi almost took back her earlier statement in favor of offering silent support instead. 

Seven finally spoke, "It had been so long. So long since I'd heard the voices of the collective. I hoped I never would again." She shifted a bit to stretch her back, still sore from being violently connected to the Queencell.

"It wasn't just the screams. The sheer terror shooting through thousands of bodies. The cold suffocation of thousands of helpless minds in an instant." Seven took a shaky breath and shook her head. "As a drone I could hear the voices. I responded to the commands. It was something between watching myself perform a task without a single ounce of control and feeling so desperately like the task needed to be completed or I'd disappoint someone I honored.

"As a queen, however briefly, I felt their confusion and their need for direction and approval. I felt like a mother. A caretaker. Then the Romulans opened the airlocks and I felt their lives ripped away from me while they screamed for me to help them."

"Oh, honey," Raffi murmured, wiping a new tear from where it had been slowly traveling the side of her partner's nose. 

Seven continued in a rush, "Then I manipulated them. Used them. Violated them exactly how I had been violated." Her voice had elevated from grief to anger. "And they yearned for it. When the Romulans were defeated, they pleaded for more directions. More orders. I didn't want to let them go. They needed me. 

"But nobody has the right to control another person like that. No matter how honorable my intentions or desperate our situation. In a single second, I set them back years in their development as individuals."

"Like a relapse," Raffi said, shifting to see Seven better.

"Precisely. The analog of the Borg to a drug is a relatively accurate one."

"But you did set them free."

"I did."

"Even though it was hard. Because it was the right thing to do."

"Yes."

"Then maybe that's what matters. Right now they're living with and being treated by the best cybernetics experts in the galaxy, with a unique understanding of their background," Raffi reminded her. The xBs had been taken in by the Android community on the Synths' planet before the couple's departure on the La Sirena a few months before. Last anyone had heard they were getting along well.

"Do the ends justify the means?" Seven asked.

"I think that Admiral Jean-Luc Picard would say that the ends never justify the means." Raffi chuckled slightly at the idea of having this moral argument with her old friend. She quickly determined it unadvisable. "However," she continued, "I think you can say that you did right by them in the end."

They were silent for a little while, before Seven eventually nodded. "I have spent most of my autonomous life trying to make up for the atrocities I committed as a Borg drone and all of my mistakes after - trying to repent for my sins-"

"And you have." Raffi interrupted. "Several times over. You were instrumental in bringing the U.S.S. Voyager home, keeping the Borg at bay, defending the outskirts of the Federation as a Ranger, and then, stopping the Romulan-induced robot apocalypse." She looked her square in the eyes. The two women both understood the feeling of debt that comes with past failures. A psychiatrist wouldn’t approve of her using a ledger mentality, but she knew what would get through to the woman she loved. "You're in the black. Your ledger is clean. You've paid your debts." Raffi sighed. "And I will remind you of that every day if I need to."

"My memory is eidetic." Seven replied. Raffi frowned at the non-sequitur. "I have an eidetic memory. I do not require reminders."

An annoyed but relieved look passed Raffi’s face. Seven smirked. "I was trying to be helpful!" Raffi exclaimed, giving the other woman a playful shove. 

Seven’s expression returned to one of sincerity as she held both of Raffi’s hands in hers. "I know. And you are, even more than you know. And I am incredibly grateful."

Raffi smiled. "Here, you start anew. We both do. Clean slate, new moral codes. We’ll make JL proud. Okay?"

"Okay."

"I love you."

"I love you too."


End file.
